Insanity
by HowlingWhisper
Summary: Sanity is a fragile thing, twisted and warped by the smallest of events. Some are so insane that they kill sanity in many others, and Rose was one of them. Having no where else to go she goes to joker after killing a man. She questions her sanity when Robin comes along, turning her whole though process upside down.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't know if anyone's interested in this, but I decided to post this anyway. I've already gotten the next five chapters written, so this will be updated fairly often. Probably twice a week, and my other story once a week.**

 **Diclaimer: I own nothing except for my Oc's and the plot.**

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There are many things in this world that aren't fair, but anyone could tell you that. Some people turn out to be luckier than others, coming out unscathed in the game of life, but some, some are struck down as soon as it really begins, pushing and cracking their moralities and their whole world. Some could get over it, push through it, or have someone to be there for them, Rose wasn't that lucky.

There was nothing special about her or her family when it happened, her being a normal little girl who absolutely adored stuffed animals, dolls, and the color pink. Her dad was the typical father, responsible, caring, and he worked as a auto mechanic. Her mom was sweet,motherly, and not the brightest of bulbs, though sometimes she managed to surprise everyone by making an observation or remark that sounded nothing like her, to which she would just smile sweetly and ask what they were talking about, though a gleam of mischief would reside in her eyes.

Gotham city was not for the weak nor kind, as it would chew them up and spit them back out. If even a trace of innocence remained in a child, adult, or teen, it would sink it's dark claws of hatred and fear into the morsel of purity, and rip it away faster than a blink of an eye. Unfortunately , Rose was no different in this case, and a sweet child became just as corrupted and rank as the stone hearted killer that took her parents.

"Mom?" A young clear voice called out, followed by light footsteps and the squeaking of a door being pushed open. Rose frowned in confusion, her mom was standing at the phone with blank, wide eyes, her hand covering the open mouth that was dragging in small breaths of air.

"Mommy?" She tried agin, clutching the worn down cheetah stuffed animal to her chest. Walking forward, she tugged on her mom's dress, wrinkling it slightly and drawing the women out of her stupor. The women gasped shakily, holding back her tears and sobs for her children's sake.

"Mommy, Austin and Alex won't go to sleep. They both keep crying and didn't stop even when I gave them Simber." She whined, pointing to the stuffed cheetah in her small arms.

Linda didn't answer her eldest, mentally fighting for control before calming the emotions threatening to split her brain in half. Joseph had been working in the garage when a drug dealer from his past had shot him in the head, killing him right after he swore to do the same to his family. She had been cooking in the kitchen when the phone rang and she was informed of situation by a family friend.

Getting down on the same eye level as Rose, she put both hands on her daughter's shoulders and squeezed slightly. Frowning because her mom was scaring her, Rose listened as her mother started speaking.

"Rose, my sweet girl, there's something really important I need you to do for mommy," She stopped and searched Rose's eyes, continuing when she nodded uncertainly, "Go pack the warmest clothes you have along with your shoes, we need to go somewhere really quickly. Your Daddy's not going to come home." Confused by her serious and startlingly urgent tone of voice, she hurried down the hall and back into the room she shared with her brothers.

The small room had cracked paint, showing how old the room really was, but Rose considered it her home. When she finally reached for her last piece of clothing and stuffed it into the bag she was holding, a loud knocking on the front door make the apartment feel much more menacing. Her mom came running down the hall, hurriedly entering the room and unsettling the twin boys who had just gotten over being fussy.

"Rose I need you to be brave now more than ever," She whispered, helping her daughter pull on the backpack she was awkwardly trying to strap together. Grabbing the two young boys, she handed Austin to Rose who was standing silently behind her mom and kept Alex in her arms. Splintering wood and heavy boot steps filled the space towards the kitchen, Linda becoming all the more frantic to escape.

"Hurry baby!" Her mom urged her, glancing back to the door frequently while waiting for her daughter to climb out onto the rusty fire escape. The thing hadn't been used in ages and was hardly safe, but at this point she was desperate to keep her children safe. Linda paled as the door was banged on, cracks splattering the white complexion of the door. Making her grim decision, Linda handed Alex to Rose along with the bag she was holding, and closed the window along with the curtains.

"Mommy!" Rose called out, beating on the window frantically and crying. Looking through the gap in the curtains she could see over her mom's shoulder to where an scary looking angry man was standing with a gun in his hand. She stared, frozen in fear as she could hear muffled yells and arguing, Alex and Austin crying behind her to where she had left them. A loud bang silence it all, and Rose screamed.

The man sharply turned his head to look out the window but she had ducked down, holding a hand over her mouth in fear and disbelief. Her mom was dead. Never coming home, no more games or movie night. She shook her head in denial, chanting it's not true, it's not true, over and over in her mind. Grabbing her mom's purse and sling it over her shoulder, she grabbed her two little brothers and ran, barley seeing through the tears blurring her vision. She ran from the man, she ran from her fear, and she ran from her home. Everything she had was gone, and she had nowhere to go.

She tripped and almost stayed upright before gravity jerked her down onto the ground, forcing her to curl her body around her brothers and take the full force of the impact. Sniffing and gasping, she rubbed her shoulder onto her eyelids, trying to clear her vision to see where they were. Her legs were aching along with most of her muscles thanks to the wet concrete she had fallen on. Stumbling to her feet, she looked and found a old building in front of her, looming over her with malice, making her feel as if she were tiny.

Heading inside through a small boarded up window she found an old dusty room, filled with boxes and filth. Setting her brothers down onto a old pillow, she curled up next to them and stared off into the distance, the reality of what just happened crashing into her. She cried, her parents were gone, her house was gone, and she had no idea what to do. She couldn't take care of herself, much less her brothers! She sniffles and cried for what felt like hours, her tears eventually running dry. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what her mom told her to do if something ever happened.

" _If anything ever happens to us, take care of your brothers. Don't trust anyone and be smart, survive and don't let the world beat you."_

The words echoed around in her head as she welcomed the embrace of sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

"Mom!" Rose jolted awake, staring into darkness that loomed over her. It seemed as if she was staring into an eternal blackness. She had been dreaming about the gunshot that ruined her life, the one that took away her parents.

She looked to her left, and saw her little brothers, Austin and Alex, sleeping soundly as if they weren't aware that they had just lost their parents. As the reality of the situation crashes down upon her, she feels numb, too tired to feel anything other than nothing. Sighing, she rubbed her blood shot eyes, climbing sorely to her feet and trying to stay upright without falling to the cold floor.

Silently walking out the door, so as not to wake her brothers, she goes out into the alleyway that she had come to first. Looking around, she noticed that nobody was really around, besides a few shady people, most likely drug dealers.

Crying broke the fragile peace in the night, turning everyone's attention in the direction of the sound. Paling, Rose ran back into the room she left her brothers. Austin was sitting up and looking around, frowning, while Alex was screeching, obviously not very happy.

Picking him up, she tried to soothe Alex, but her efforts were wasted, as he kept crying. Fearing he had drawn unwanted attention, she quickly packed all the stuff up that she had and decided that they had better get a move on. Climbing out a small window she carried her brothers, one in each of her arms.

She walked until daybreak, avoiding all suspicious looking people, which was pretty much everybody. After a while people seemed to thin out, only a few homeless residing in the area. She was breathing heavily, slowly putting one aching foot in front of the other until the burning in her lungs and muscles became too much.

A rickety piece of wood caught her eye, and she turned and headed in the direction of it. A windowsill split the brick building, parting the wall and allowing her entrance. It was on the second story, making it dangerous to climb up to normally, much less with her brothers and the packs.

Frowning determinedly, Rose tightened her grip on her brothers and ran forward, springing off of a old crate and jumped landing halfway on the foot wide, concrete ledge, knocking the breath out of her already shaking body. Yelping, she lost her grip on her brothers who were jolted over to the wall, colliding with a dull thud. Both boys started screaming, filling Rose with dread as a repeat from earlier might happen. Dragging one foot up, she pushed her body up from dangling over the 10 foot drop, leading to what would surely be excruciating pain.

Hurriedly, she retrieved her brothers and walked up the old rotten wood. She came up to the window and carefully climbed in over the shards of glass illuminated in the dull light of dawn. Inside was covered in dust, so she raised her hand and swatted away that in front of her nose. It contained nothing but old scraps of wood, tarps covering broken furniture, and the gaping hole in the wall leading out to the hallway what she assumed to be downstairs.

Her body screaming at her to rest, she searched for a safe place to put her brothers while they slept. What appeared to be an old couch stood in the corner, covered by a worn-out old tarp. Sighing, she walked carefully on the old creaking floor, pulling the tarp up and over the wooden structure.

The sofa was a pale blue color, covered in fabric that suggested it was once a pristine piece of furniture. Faded silver swirls covered the fabric, and it still had both cushions, though one was ripped at the seam and stuffing spilled out of the interior.

Rose was dead tired at this point, craving sleep and swaying on her feet. Pushing the couch up against the wall, she laid her brothers on it, dropped all of the stuff that weighted her down, and promptly collapsed onto the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

The world's a harsh place, picking on the sane of mind and twisting the nicest people into the most cold and ruthless monsters you could imagine. Gotham is full of those people, filled to the brim with filth and backstabbers. Rose knew better than to trust them but she couldn't help it, after being on the streets for two cold nights and long gruesome days she needed help. There was only one option of all the villains she could think of. The king of madness himself, only he would be insane enough to help her, that is without doing unspeakable things to her.

Word on the street is he was looking for someone to carry on the destruction, since he got the idea from Batman and Robin. Every part of her heart and mind screamed at her to go back, to run from the madness but she knew of no other option. The building ahead of her looked like a skeletal hand, waiting to grab her and drag her under the ground to the darkness for the rest of eternity. A crash sent her heart crazy, and made her stomach convulse. As dread filled her she watched a figure much larger than her slink out of the shadows in the decrepit alleyway.

"Hey kid, don't you know better than to stray from mommy?" He sneered, smirking as he stepped closer with a sharpened knife raised into the air. Rose pushed Austin and Alex further behind her, grasping their hands tighter while trying to still her quaking knees.

"G-go away!" With a quivering voice she tried to sound and look brave, which just turned out to be a nervous stutter and a grimace.

"I don't think I will. What're you gonna do girlie? I think after I kill you I'll take those two kids and sell them, might bring in some good cash," Coming forward with a dangerous glint in his eyes, the thug grinned revealing stained, yellow teeth.

Time seem to slow as he lunged, blade glinting in the rusty moon light, her life flashing through her mind piece by piece. The next thing she knew was a searing pain from her cheek down to the right corner of her lips. A scream echoed into the chaos of the city, a regular sound of the night. Falling onto the ground she immediately put her hand on the pain, hoping to dull it. A throb went through the regular pain, causing her to whimper and clutch her wound tighter.

"Sit still brat, I promise I'll kill you rather quickly," he demanded, aiming for her throat. She ducked her head just a millisecond before he would've hit her Adam's apple, causing another piece of skin to be torn away by the knife. Droplets of blood pattered onto the cement sidewalk, staining it red. The man had lunged with force causing him to end up falling onto the ground, the knife slipping out of his clenched fist.

"Damn it!" He hissed, clutching his head where he hit it, causing him to be dazed for a second. That second was all Rose needed to act on instinct. Her brain instantly sent her to grab the knife and the thug in the back of the neck. His eyes widened and he gasped, inhaling his own blood and choking him. Grasping desperately at the knife in his neck he tried to pull it out, only causing more blood to rush up and into his lungs.

Rose backed away in horror, staring at her hands covered in the metallic smelling substance. Tears streamed out of her eyes as she stared at the man she had killed. Backing up slowly she bumped into something solid.


End file.
